No Common Ground On Health Care Reform (UPDATED)

An unruly Little Rock crowd heckled and shouted at two Arkansas Democratic congressmen Wednesday, accusing them of supporting a government-backed health plan that would take away Americans’ personal choice and freedom.

At one point, U.S. Rep. Mike Ross sat with his head in his hands while the crowd shouted. He and fellow Democratic Rep. Vic Snyder told audience members at a forum at Arkansas Children’s Hospital that they wouldn’t support a completely government-run, single-payer health insurance plan.

‘‘But that’s what Obama wants!” an audience member shouted, leading to more heckling.

[Emphasis mine]

You read that correctly–a right-wing crowd heckled two Democratic Congressmen even though those Congressmen agreed with them!

More below the fold…

Memo to the Blue Dogs and other conservative Democrats: these are the same people who you have been bending over backwards trying to appease in the health care debate. No matter what you do, they will not support you. It doesn’t matter if you agree with them, vote with them, go above and beyond to give them everything they want–they just will not support you for no other reason than you have a (D) next to your name.

(Then again, a lot of Blue Dogs and conservative Dems are motivated by corporate campaign contributions, so maybe they don’t care who dislikes them as long as corporations and the wealthy are on their side).

For the rest of us, this is just more proof that conservatives have no interest whatsoever in health care reform. They have no interest in compromise, in finding common ground or anything like that–even when you agree with them, they’ll shout you down.

All conservatives care about here is stamping down anyone who supports improving our health care system; all they care about is killing health care reform of any kind.

That’s the face of modern conservatism. That’s the face of the modern Republican Party. They don’t want to compromise, they don’t want to solve the health care crisis, they just want to shout down anyone who disagrees with them, trying to harass and intimidate Congressional Democrats into backing down.

They’re not on my side. They’re not on your side. They’re on the side of the health industrial complex and the conservative groups they fund. If we’re going to improve health care in America, we cannot let these right-wing astroturfers hijack the health care debate. We cannot let them intimidate us into backing down or going home.

Democrats, ignore this small-but-vocal minority and their allies in Congress and just focus on passing the best health care reform bill you can. In the end, your country will thank you for it.

Rep. Brad Miller (D-NC) will not be hosting any town hall events this August — instead, he’s making himself available to constituents for one-on-one meetings about health care reform — and at least part of the reason is this: His offices have received threatening phone calls, including at least one direct threat against his life.

[…]

“The call to the D.C. office was, ‘Miller could lose his life over this,'” said Canipe. “Our staffer took it so seriously, he confirmed what the guy was saying. He said, ‘Sir is that a threat?’ and at that time our staffer was getting the phone number off caller ID and turning it over to the Capitol Police.”

[…]

Canipe explained that Miller had no plans for a town hall before and won’t be holding any now, due to this event and the examples he’s already seen from the around the country: “Our point is, we’re not gonna be bullied into having a town hall so it can then be interrupted by the fake grassroots folks.“